HH BVPS Mahārāja: Yeah, good one, like that. It just has a nature. Because everything I was thinking, you can’t use it for music, and someone will say, ‘No, no, but we play on it and it’s a…’ If you say, you can’t use it for art, ‘No, no we use it and draw on the wall with it..’ Yeah. So I was, you know… I wasn’t… But the potato, that’s the perfect one, always the potato is the perfect example, right? Works for everybody, everywhere in all times, places and circumstances. And even works on Ekādaśī, right? So, you know, hey, perfect. So, yes. So that’s the thing, is the Vedic system is actually allowing someone to act, because you can say whatever you like, but then the problem comes is, with time then you start to see what works is what the Vedas are recommending. It is just sad when you only figure that out when you are 50, 60, 80 years old, like that. Like I remember, I think it was… Yeah, one lady doing this and that, so many different things, and then she just figured out, it is much easier to be married and just perform those duties of that, and they were more of the vānaprasthas, so then they could just focus on their sādhana and on their preaching and stuff like that. But she would do the lady stuff, he would do the men’s stuff and like that it worked very nicely. She had been through, that was her third marriage, and he works it out, and the guy also, right, two marriages bombed, and by the third one he figures that, you know, maybe he is a little nice to his wife, he talks nicely, and she is happy. And she has also figured out as well, she should be the same, and it works. So if this stuff is being trained, they could have done that from teenagers, and then already had a marriage that was lasting for all that time. Because they are both devotees, they have common values, so it could work. But that is the thing, is that you try to do all these things or…
I remember, one devotee, somehow or another he had studied under a guide, practically, like internship, who was considered the best in the country with dairy farming, and he knew dairy farming like anything, and then also along with that farming the guy was so good at it. But then he figured with time, nobody cared about farming and cows, really. You know, presidents, and it was all about who is controlling this, that. So then he decided he will get into management. So it is a bit like the Viśvāmitra kind-of thing, you know, he is doing this and then he gets the feed (?) and says that’s better and keeps going. And then that bombed on him really bad, and then I met him, maybe it was like, I don’t know, maybe 20 years after I had last seen him when he bombed as a manager, like a temple kind-of thing, and then he was teaching in the school. So all along his nature was just a simple brāhminical, he was a teacher and he was a good teacher, had been doing it for 20 years, so it wasn’t like all the other things that bombed out on him. So it was, he was able to intellectually understand how it worked so nicely because of that intelllectual, that brāhminical brain. But he didn’t have the managerial ability to make it work, so he couldn’t get farming to work and cow, he couldn’t get the management to work. But as soon as he just accepted and did his brāhminical thing, it was nice. The students liked him, he was a good teacher, he did really well, everything like that. So it’s just a matter of, whatever is your nature, do that for Kṛṣṇa and then it works perfectly. Otherwise, yes, you can try to do anything else you want in the name of equal opportunity and equality, and then, you know, after 20, 30, 50 years you’ll figure out, well, maybe it is easier to just do what your nature is. And so then it works so nicely, and that’s the perfection of the Vedic system, is all of them have their origin in the brāhminical. So that means anybody, whatever their nature, they can be a vaiṣṇava and be absorbed in devotional service and be expert and professional in that, and then accordingly, whatever other natures they have, they use that to get those things done and add in, and that makes the uniqueness to that individual and their particular service and preaching. Then it works perfectly.
So that is the thing, is if that is just accepted that Kṛṣṇa made the nature, not us, then it just makes it so much easier. You figure out what you do, and then you know from that where your strengths are and your weaknesses are, where you can organize, where you can’t, where you can do, where you don’t. And then others also know because they know is, ‘Okay, let’s say, this guy knows business. So if we are talking about something to do with money and like that, ask him. Why we will ask that austere brahmacārī over there in the corner? He doesn’t know. Like that. I will ask the guy who knows money and he will tell you.’ And then so that way then the administrator and the preachers, they get so much done because they engage who can do this stuff. Like, you know, we were discussing, I think, day before yesterday, Rādhānātha Mahārāja, he just knows, like it was said, he knows how to inspire people in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and what will they do? They will do their nature. So if they are managers, they manage, if they know money they will get the money together. He has big projects, he doesn’t have to raise any money, he inspires those people that know money, they know how to get it. Like I saw, Ambarīṣa Prabhu, right, he is coming from that background of money. He knows, if you want to raise money, you put in money. Because I remember is, when we, I think one of our managers asked him if he would like to donate for something in the school, you know, we have a project. His first question is, ‘Who else has given?’ He wanted to know who is giving, what quality of people are giving. So then he can understand… He didn’t have to… By doing that he can tell whether the project is good or not. Because he knows nothing about it, he is interested, but if he hears people who are qualified are investing, then he knows it’s worth investing, because the guy who knows what he is doing won’t invest in something that is bad. And at the same time is, you could say, okay he is asking that, when it came for a collection for the big temple, the first thing he did, he says, ‘I am pledging this much money,’ right, when he starts to talk he has got everybody there that could either put in money or knew how to influence people to get money, and his first thing is ‘I am putting in this much money, you match it, and if you get more I will match that.’ He just, that was his first thing. So he knows money, he knows how to make it work. So that’s the thing, is you ask those people, they know how to do that. Managers know how to manage, the cook knows how to cook, the treasurer knows how much money you have, so whether you can do any of that or not.
So you have to ask these people, and that makes a good manager. That’s why when yesterday the point of micromanagement, it’s most useless thing on the planet, because unless you know everything… So the only person that technically could micromanage in this universe is Lord Brahmā, Lord Viṣṇu and Lord Śiva, and, of course, Durgā. But do they? No. But they are the only ones qualified, they know everything, literally, but they don’t micromanage. So if the guys that are qualified that they could don’t, why would anybody else think it is a value? So that’s why the president has his people and he listens to them, and he, that point is, why he is the president? Because he follows up, he goes after, he sees it is happening, he puts it into place, he brings the people, that’s what he is doing. He may not have to do anything else, but he does it, and that’s the part in that. And then as an individual he is advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he is applying himself in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he is chanting, he is doing these things, he is inspiring the others, and so, therefore, then from both from his individual and from his managerial he makes it all happen, and then it is great. And then all these other guys, they feel good because they did something. But as soon as you try to micromanage then he is not doing, and then if he does have the ability, he will step back.
So that’s the thing, is you know people’s nature, it is nature and ability. So let’s say, the guy is business, okay, but how big a business? Okay, he runs a little shop on the corner and he pleases everyone, he sells ice cream, right? So he will know principles of business that you could learn from him, but on doing something on something really big he won’t know. But he has the nature, if need be then he might be able to find out, he may not be able to do it, as a devotee he could find out because of that brahminical side, he still may not be able to do it, and if he does, that is by Kṛṣṇa’s grace. But otherwise you ask somebody who is bigger. It’s like Rādhānātha Mahārāja was talking to some of the richest in India and that says something. Someone is, okay, ‘We are the richest in Papua New Guinea,’ you know, there is only 20 people there that got money. But you are talking about 1.4 billion people, and there is huge business communities. So to be 10th richest in India or to be above that in India, then they are good, they say, you know it works. So he would deal with that. And manager, so it’s like Jayapatāka Mahārāja, like we said, he is not a manager, he was inspiring people down in Bangalore where you had 50 guys that knew how to manage, and they built that temple, a big, huge project in record time. They were spending five lakhs a day in that time, that would have been when? Back in the 1980s, I think, so that is a lot of money. Five lakhs a day, they had how many engineers? I think, they had something like 10 or 20 engineers on site and everybody, I mean, it is huge. And he inspired them to do that, he would regularly go there, talk with them and that, but he didn’t manage it, they managed it. Same Gopāla Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja, he inspires the other guys to do it, they make the money, they build the buildings, they do the stuff.
So that’s the whole thing, is the president, he inspires others to do it. Where they can’t, then he tells them what to do and he steps in and does it himself. Like Prabhupāda made that point about the temple president, I think once somebody… Prabhupāda came out, ‘Why isn’t this done?’ He says, ‘Oh, that devotee didn’t show up today.’ Prabhupāda says, ‘No it is your service.’ In other words, for the president every service in the temple is his service and he is responsible to get it all done. Now, the smart thing to do is, other people who are qualified, they do it because how many of those services can you do? So, therefore, let’s say, to do all that takes 20 people, so he has got all 20 people doing all those services, but he is following up that they are doing it because it is his service. He doesn’t micromanage it, but he just sees that they are doing it and they are doing it right, and doing… I remember seeing Tamāl Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja, when you have a conversation with him, let’s say, he is trying to work something out, he will go, ‘Okay, um, if this is the scenario, what would you do?’ And then you sit there and think, you go, ‘I’d do this.’ First thing that I caught once, he didn’t do it all the time, but one time he went… Because he was so absorbed, he went, ‘Oh…’ he was thinking, ‘Option D, eh, that is interesting.’ So, in other words, in his mind he had already worked out about five, ten different ways you could solve this problem, but he was not sure which one to use, so when he asked me and I said this thing, that was D, that was number four. But then he doesn’t just at that go, ‘No, but what about that?’ He would just go, ‘Why? Why did you choose that?’ And you would explain it, then you would see if there is something of value in it or not. And if there was then he would take it, and if there is not then he would understand, ‘Okay, this guy doesn’t know, I won’t ask him, and I will ask someone else. Or if he is the guy doing it, I will tell him what to do.’ And he also had a friend that he was from one of those top, he went to Harrow, you know Harrow? Okay, so friends from there, classmates from there, so he meets him after like 20 years, he is a devotee and they are not but he meets them somewhere. And this guy is working in this top company in the world, I think it was number two in the world or number one in the world for this particular kind of research thing. And he says, they have these meetings, ten minute meetings where the head guy walks in, he has his thing, what are the options, has everyone write it down and that, and then a little bit of the discussion, then he takes about, he looks at the papers, and if any of them make sense, he calls the person and ‘Now you explain this,’ and he explains it, and if it is good, they get that guy to do it or get it going, and if it’s not he goes on to the next one. So the point is is, they are able to listen. Why would you waste your time if someone else can do it? Because then you can do more things, you can expand, there is so many things to be done. But at the same time that doesn’t mean just sit in the office and do nothing and just think, ‘Why, you know, I have told everybody.’ But if you are not following up then that is not there. I have seen that so many times that someone who can’t manage, doesn’t manage, ‘Oh, I delegated it.’ ‘Yes, but did you follow up?’ ‘No…’ And so, that’s why it didn’t work. But they will say, ‘It is not my fault, I delegated.’ No, you are in charge, so, therefore, it is your fault.
So there is always a balance, that’s the thing in the Vedic system, you have that balance. It’s just like the wife is submissive to the husband, right? So then you think, ‘Oh, that’s all one-sided,’ but what the husband does is all about the wife, the considerations are all about the wife. So you see, they are both the center of attention, they are both in control, but at the same time they are both not, it is a cooperation. So that’s the Vedic system, everything is balanced. While the modern, if you take the corporate, it is only balanced and it is only for making money. You take all these other modern, it is only for their that thing.
So the Vedic, the Varṇāśrama, is all, everything together, how all āśramas and all varṇas… In other words, varṇa means gṛhastha, they are technically… A gṛhasta is doing a particular thing, brāhmana, kṣatriya, vaiśya and śūdra, they are doing that service, but brahmacārīs, vānaprasthas, sannyāsīs – that is brāhminical. They may have a nature of brāhmana, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra, but the point is is, it is going to be always in the context of the āśrama. So, in other words, the brahmacārī is going to do brahmacārī stuff, though within that he might do education, he might do management, he might do Deity worship, he might do cooking, he might do so many different things. But the point is is, doing that, it is still within the context of the āśrama. So that’s the whole thing, is that the āśrama is the central feature. To place someone you have to see what their nature is, so Prabhupāda said, ‘Varṇa first,’ but the point is is, that ‘varṇa first’ doesn’t mean varṇa is more important than āśrama. People take it that way, but no, it just means that if you want to engage somebody, you need to know what their varṇa is because that flavor will be there whatever ashram they are in. And so, if you are taking these things into consideration, then you can do, it’s very… So what is the training? Not some corporate thing, because those are tactical skills or technical skills. Point is is, if you don’t know how they are to be used, then it’s not… Like since we have introduced all this corporate and that, we don’t find that the quality of vaiṣṇava interaction and community is any better. So that means, even though they are in the meeting and trying to be nice and all that, it is still just as political as ever.
So that is the whole thing, it’s community means, you are developing the vaiṣṇava qualities, that is by vaiṣṇava association, that is by understanding the philosophy. Of course, like now we are discussing the philosophy, but in the context of administration and structure. So, therefore, then it works. So then one sees how does it go into one’s life. Then you start to see is that when you read these purports, that’s why it talks about these things. It is talking about the king, but it is talking about certain elements: the protection, this that, you know, he is like a father to the citizens and all these things like that. But father of the citizens doesn’t mean by touch. Okay.
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